


Brightline Rules

by EmeraldHeiress



Series: How Dangerous (A Mask Can Be) [14]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics), Red Hood: Lost Days
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Identity Reveal, Revelations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:42:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26617651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldHeiress/pseuds/EmeraldHeiress
Summary: Jim realistically wondered how long his plausible deniability could actually last.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Jim Gordon
Series: How Dangerous (A Mask Can Be) [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1932781
Comments: 11
Kudos: 325





	Brightline Rules

Jim realistically wondered how long his plausible deniability could actually last. He knew that cocky little smirk on Robin’s face. The one that hid fear and heartbreak and hunger. Knew it from picking the little twerp up for picking pockets in museums. Knew it from the social service visits. Knew it from the domestic abuse calls from before his dad went to prison. Knew it from the day they were called to take his mother to the morgue. 

How long could he pretend he didn’t recognize the pain that was under the smirk? That he hadn’t seen it every day on the faces of hundreds of kids. That it hadn’t been plastered prominently in the paper when Bruce Wayne adopted his newest orphan.

How long could he pretend that he hadn’t seen it every Thursday when he had dinner at Wayne Manor? In the photo in his wallet of his newest nephew? In the memorial pamphlet when he’d been killed in Ethiopia. In the frozen portrait hanging forever in the dark hallway for dead relatives. 

The familiar smirk he saw stretched across the Red Hood’s lips now. 

It was a punch to the gut. 

But for once a welcome one. He didn’t know how. He didn’t fucking _care_ how. Gotham was was a weird and a strange place and he had accepted that a long time ago. He wasn’t going to question that now. 

His nephew was alive.

_Jason was alive._

It was only twenty years of practice that kept him from sweeping the boy into a bone-crushing hug right there in front of God and the beat cops and never letting go; bleeding drug dealer on the ground between them be damned.

“Hood!” 

“Aw, c’mon, Commish.” The man - his nephew’s a _man_ now - taunted. “I didn’t do nothing.” 

Jim rolled his eyes. The Red Hood was known for taking down dealers and pimps: those selling to kids and beating up their women. Hood was known to be a champion for the weak. Whatever the perp on the ground did, he most likely deserved it. 

Only familiarity allowed Jim to notice the tension running through his shoulders. The kid hadn’t expected him to be there. Cared about his thoughts and reactions, no matter what kind of front he was gonna put up about it.

He huffed as Hood crammed on his helmet and prepared to take off. “If you happen to see my nephew,” Jim called, “kid by the name of Jason…” The vigilante froze, helmet staring impassively at the cop. “Let him know that dinner is at 6:00 on Sunday and Barbara and I would love to have him.”

“What?!” The modulator crackled with the burst of a word.

Jim took a drag off of his cigarette and looked hard at the Hood. “I _know_ you know where he is. I’m politely asking you to pass along a message. I’d like to see my nephew.”

”I’ll see what I can do.” The modulator did a good job but it couldn’t eliminate all the shakiness from his voice. 

The Commissioner blinked and Hood was gone. Jim nodded. Yeah, that plausible deniability was getting real fucking thin.

——————–

I was planning a whole fic with this, leading to Jim blowing his whole plausible deniability out of water with some not-so-subtle poking the bear with Bruce and trying to help Jason and Bruce’s relationship. But I’ve kind of stalled out. So, have a blurb instead. :)


End file.
